Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Depression, Anxiety and the Captive Audience


“I want to crawl out of my skin, jump in front of a car, and cry. All at the same time.”

“This is like trying to scale that prison wall in Dark Knight Rises.”

“This is like swimming through Jell-o. I just want to stop.”

“No writerly stirrings. It's like being cut off from one of my senses.”

“Donned bright colors to try and lift my mood. Alas, now I'm just a sad girl in a red dress.”

“Sometimes, handling depression and anxiety is like trying to leash a lynx. And a hyena. In the middle of rush hour traffic.”

There are a thousand ways to describe mental illness when you’re a writer, so many metaphors at your disposal and so many adjectives to try and capture the darkness, the hopelessness, and the exhaustion. But there’s only one real way to live it: your way. My way.

My way, as Fezzik says in The Princess Bride, is not very sportsman-like.